‘Greek Religion . . . already has the standing of a classic, and the publication of an English version, which incorporates new material and is in effect a second edition, demands a toast . . . Anyone who pretends to survey Greek religion must be phenomenally learned. Burkert is. His book is a marvel of professional scholarship.’
— London Review of Books
‘This book has established itself as a masterpiece, packed with learning but also rich in ideas and connections of every sort. Its appearance in a good English translation is an event not only for Hellenists but for all those interested in the study of religion . . . nobody else could have produced an account of the subject of comparable range and power. This will be the best history of Greek religion for this generation.’
— New York Review of Books
Cover illustration: detail from an Attic vase, 450 B.C., showing a victory sacrifice (The Mansell Collection).
Tabella dei contenuti
Introduction.
A Survey of Scholarship.
The Sources.
The Scope of the Study.
Part I: Prehistory and the Minoan-Mycenaean Age.
2. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.
3. Indo-European.
4. The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion.
5. The Dark Ages and the Problem of Continuity.
Part II: Ritual and Sanctuary.
6. ‘Working Sacred Things: Animal Sacrifice.
7. Gift Offerings and Libation.
8. Prayer.
9. Purification.
10. The Sanctuary.
11. Priests.
12. The Festival.
13. Ecstasy and Divination.
Part III: The Gods.
14. The Spell of Homer.
15. Individual Gods.
16. The Remainder of the Pantheon.
17. The Special Character of Greek Anthropomorphism.
Part IV: The Dead, Heroes, and Chthonic Gods.
18. Burial and the Cult of the Dead.
19. Afterlife Mythology.
20. Olympian and Chthonic.
21. The Heroes.
22. Figures Who Cross the Chthonic-Olympian Boundary.
Part V: Polis and Polytheism.
23. Thought Patterns in Greek Polytheism.
24. The Rhythm of the Festivals.
25. Social Functions of Cult.
26. Piety in the Mirror of Greek Language.
Part VI: Mysteries and Asceticism.
27. Mystery Sanctuaries.
28. Bacchica and Orphica.
29. Bios.
Part VII: Philosophical Religion.
30. The New Foundation: Being and the Divine.
31. The Crisis: Sophists and Atheists.
32. The Deliverance: Cosmic Religion and Metaphysics.
33. Philosophical Religion and Polis Religion: Plato’s Laws.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index of Greek Words.
Index.
Circa l’autore
Walter Burkert was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. John Raffan is the author of Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, published by Wiley.
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